Wingnut wrote:
>
> ...this new "floating, bound, re-useable, object-tag-made border" does
> one OTHER drastic thing to the CSS spec. It opens the possibility of
> removing all MARGIN settings from all containers and box models. Let me
> try to explain how.
You have to remember that CSS is not only for XHTML, it's for any
kind of XML document, so even in the unlikely event that your OTMB is
added to XHTML, CSS must not change so drastically because of it.
> This hypothetical new object-tag-made-border, heretofore "OTMB", is
> something that is "binded" to one or more selector-found box models in
> the document...
<snip/> Long description of how the OTMB should work...
The way in which you are describing these objects sounds very
presentational. You seem to be confusing the difference between
semantics and presentation.
From your original post:
> A document full of original content, along with
> teacher-added circles, arrows, margin scribblings,
> cross-outs, angled text with transparent background,
> all those "dohickies" teachers use to make comments
> on a student's assignment.
Your original requirment of marking up all those "doohickies" does
have some semantics. ie. Those circles, lines etc... do actually mean
something to the reader and are not just to make the document look
pretty (well, except for the smiley faces :-) ). However, your proposed
implementation is nothing more than an object tag, which has no more
meaning the a <div> or <span> given appropriate classes with styles applied.
What you need is a completely seperate XML language, with an
appropriate namespace, that can be written within the XHTML document. I
believe elements like these would be out of the scope of XHTML.
For example, you may have elements like these:
<x:spelling> (inicates incorrect spelling)
<x:repeated> (indicates an unnecessarily repeated word)
<x:comment> (a comment added by the marker)
<x:whatever> (???)
You would then need an application that understands what these mean,
and/or an appropriate stylesheet to present them in a way a human can
percieve the meaning such as underlining, strike-through, highlighting,
etc...
Also, you might like to take a look at InkML [1] (currently only a
working draft)
This would allow you to draw the lines, arrows, smiley faces, or
whatever on the screen and have them stored within an XHTML (or any
other XML) document.
CYA
...Lachy
[1] http://www.w3.org/2002/mmi/ink